Abstract: The Clement Greenberg Papers document the professional and personal life of the art critic known for championing American
Abstract Expressionist painters.

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Language: Collection material is in
English

Biographical/Historical Note

Clement Greenberg, born in 1909 to Lithuanian Jewish immigrants, was raised in New York City, Norfolk, Virginia, and Brooklyn.
As a child, Greenberg drew from nature with unusual accuracy, and as a teenager he joined the Art Students League, but by
the time he attended Syracuse University his interests had shifted to languages and literature, and upon graduation he set
out to become a writer. For nearly a decade Greenberg wrote poetry, short stories, and a novel (never finished) while also
reading extensively in English, German and French. To earn a living, he worked in his father's businesses, which gave him
opportunity to travel and live in various parts of the U.S. During this period he published two stories, one poem, and two
book-length translations. He was also briefly married, fathered a son, and divorced.

He returned to New York City in 1936 and found employment as a clerk, first for the Civil Service Comission, then for the
Veteran's Administration, and finally for the Customs Service, Department of Wines and Liquors. His interest in art re-emerged
as he began taking drawing classes at a WPA studio and consorting with Greenwich Village artists, including Hans Hofmann,
Lee Krasner, and Jackson Pollock. At the same time, Greenberg met the circle of writers around
Partisan Review, with whom he shared an interest in socialist politics on the one hand, and aesthetics on the other. In 1939
Partisan Review published Greenberg's "Avant-garde and Kitsch," to great acclaim.

Soon thereafter, Greenberg joined the editorial staff of
Partisan Review, and was employed primarily as a literary reviewer. In 1941 he wrote his first art review for
The Nation and, resigning from
Partisan Review, served as
The Nation's regular art reviewer from 1942 to 1949. He was also the associate editor of
Commentary from 1944 to 1957. Greenberg wrote four books:
Miró (1948),
Matisse (1953),
Hans Hofmann (1961), and
Art and Culture (1961). The latter, a classic of American art criticism, has influenced artists and critics alike.

Greenberg is most remembered for having recognized the achievements of Pollock, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, and other abstract
expressionists at a time when few others could perceive them, and still fewer could explain them. Greenberg offered clear,
concise explanations in formalist terms, situating these painters squarely within the Western tradition. These painters' unprecedented
success assured Greenberg's success; he became America's leading art expert.

In his personal life, Greenberg carried on numerous amorous relationships with women, among whom were intellectuals and painters
known in New York in the 1940s and 1950s. From 1950-1955, Greenberg was romantically involved with the much younger Helen
Frankenthaler, with whom he remained friends for the rest of his life. In 1955, as that relationship ended, Greenberg began
his lengthy psychoanalysis. He married Jenny Van Horne, an actress, in 1956, and they had a daughter in 1963. The marriage
floundered soon thereafter, and the couple eventually divorced but then remarried in the decade before Greenberg's death.

In the 1950s Greenberg abandoned regular reviewing in favor of occasional articles for major reviews and catalog essays. He
also began organizing exhibitions on such painters as Pollock, Adolph Gottlieb, Newman and Hofmann. He gave lectures at museums
and universities, served as a consultant for galleries and museums, and from 1958 to 1960 was employed by French and Company.
Greenberg's ties to artists, critics, dealers and curators gave him unequalled influence in a booming American art market,
influence that endured through the 1960s and 1970s, even though others did not always endorse the artists he championed, such
as Ken Noland and Jules Olitski.

Greenberg's reputation began to decline in the late 1970s after it was discovered that, while serving as the executor of David
Smith's estate, he had had the paint stripped from six Smith sculptures. The resulting scandal fueled a kind of revolt against
what some saw as Greenberg's tyranny over the New York art world. A new generation of critics emerged who questioned Greenberg's
connoisseurship, his view of art history, and his character. Magazine articles referred to him as "the most hated man in the
art world."

Despite this growing opposition, Greenberg continued to publish articles, though less frequently, to give talks in the US
and abroad, and to advise certain artists, dealers and curators until his death in 1994. His
Collected Essays, published in 1986 and 1993 was highly praised, offsetting to some degree the years of disrepute.

Administrative Information

Access

Open for use by qualified researchers, with the following exceptions: - 14 Journals (1943-1993, Boxes 16-17) are sealed for
20 years (until Sept 13, 2015); - 2 diaries written with Helen Frankenthaler (1952-1954, Box 20) are sealed until 27 December
2021; - Letters from Helen Frankenthaler (Box 5, f.1) are sealed until 27 December 2021; - Letters from John and Vera Russell
(Box 5, f. 2) are sealed until Sept 13, 2015 or the deaths of the correspondents, whichever is later; - 18 Journals (1928-1991,
Boxes 14-15) were opened after 10 years (Sept 13, 2005); - 32 Diaries (1952-1993, Boxes 21-22) were opened after 15 years
(Sept 13, 2010).

The Clement Greenberg Papers were processed and cataloged in 1996 by Annette Leddy. Audiotapes and videotapes re-processed
and individually cataloged in Oct 2003 and July 2004. Audiotapes, videotapes and film (including 1 videotape and 2 audiotapes
received in 2004) were reformatted 2003-2004. Four boxes of additions received in 2004 remain unprocessed.

The Clement Greenberg Papers document the life of America's most influential art critic from the age of nineteen until his
death. They reveal, in extraordinary depth and detail, his personal and intellectual development, and the intertwining of
the two. Greenberg's letters to Harold Lazarus, together with his Journals
(sealed), tell the inner story of the critic's outward success: his artistic and literary ambitions, his family relationships, his
attraction and resistance to women, his obsession with
Partisan Review colleagues, his friendship with Pollock and other artists, and his fascination with aesthetics. Numerous manuscripts, often
handwritten and in several drafts, reveal Greenberg's writing process and the evolution of his ideas from the late 1920s until
the year before his death. The compilation of clippings spanning several decades portray the shifting public view of Greenberg,
while photographs and tapes preserve a visual and audio record of him lecturing and otherwise interacting in the art world.

Missing from these papers is a collection of Greenberg correspondence with art world figures held at the Archives of American
Art.